Locke on Individuation and Identity

Locke claims that spatiotemporal existence is the principle of individuation. This claim has been criticized on two grounds. In the seventeenth century, John Sergeant argued that Locke’s principle of individuation may be useful in daily life, but leaves unanswered the fundamental question of what individuates objects. In the twentieth century, Peter Strawson argued that even if spatiotemporal existence is the principle of individuation, it is a principle we will never be able to apply. I argue that the first criticism rests on a confusion about what a principle of individuation should do, and suggest that the second problem can at least be mitigated.